Im going to fail college calculus again.

Im high school i was really good at math but I got to college and I’m absolutely terrible at it. My school runs on a quarter system and everything goes so quick. I got accepted as a Computer Science and Engineering major when I first came here but after one quarter, I was kicked out because I failed calc. Now I’m undeclared and It’s the last actual math class I need to declare as just Computer Science. I get As in my coding classes, it’s just math that I can’t figure out. If I fail I was planning on begging the teacher to let me pass but I don’t think that would work. My plan might me to drop out and go to a cc, because I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t admit me into CS again… I’m good at coding and that’s the only thing I see myself doing, I’m very discouraged because the last time I failed they told me to focus on something more “realistic”. Does anyone have any advice? :frowning:

Do you have a tutor??? There is no getting around needing that math foundation at any school.

Can you retake the math class again over the summer?

Take the class at a different school. The one you’re at sounds horrible. How many weeks are in the quarter? That may just be too fast paced for you. That doesn’t mean you’re in the wrong major. If they can’t figure out how to support women in STEM, you may just be at the wrong school.

Have you seen a tutor? What’s the last math class whose material you felt comfortable with?

It looks like the OP attends UCIrvine. The required Calc class for CS is Math 2, which the same sequence that the math majors take. (Some life science majors, i.e, pre-health types make take Math 2 as well, altho they can satisfy the premed requirements with Math 5.) As there are plenty of female math majors, let’s not throw gender into this unless you have specific facts to support your assertion.

I agree about seeing if you can take in the summer, but if your precalc background is not strong a summer session is even faster (~6 weeks) as opposed to 10. The UCs are extremely generous about transfer credit so what about taking at a cc over the summer?

Of course, that may not prepare you well enough for any advanced coursework that you need for your major. And, if you have to take three quarters of calc (2a, b & c), correct?

It seems like a bit much to assume a school is horrible and sexist because someone isn’t doing well in a particular subject. Anyways, I’m a freshman engineering major at UCI and I did well in calc through going to all of the lectures/discussions and taking notes, doing all of the suggested homework and then going through all of the homework problems again before each quiz, then going through all of the homework problems (and also additional problems similar to the homework problems) once again before each midterm/final. It’s definitely a pain but doing practice problems and also reading the textbook is really what got me good results. You might be doing all of this already but if not, hopefully this helps! There’s also free peer tutoring for certain math classes :slight_smile:

It’s Math 2B. I passed both calc AP tests in high school with 3’s but I had to still take 2B. My calc bc teacher never covered series which is where I struggle in Math 2B, but other than series, I’m pretty good at calc. After 2B, I don’t have to take any other calc class as a CS major. I finished my final exam and I feel better about it than I did last time so I’m hoping for the best. The first time I ever took it, there were only series questions, this time it was split.:slight_smile: I did do the suggested homework from the textbook and it definitely did help. Now, I just have to wait for the results ?

I hope you pass! If you do not, then next time you have to take this class, get a tutor from week 1 and work with that tutor at least once per week for the entire term. Since your main issue is series, that may help a lot, because you’ll have someone to work with on that, beyond the professor.

Not sure why you made this thread? You don’t know your results yet. Was there a point to it?

But since your done and waiting… Lots of cs and engineering students “might” have to retake a certain class. This stuffs hard but if beginning classes are that hard then there is an issue. Math has to do with analytical ability and logic. So does CS so there is a correlation in that way of thinking.

Also you seem young… No one begs their college professor to pass them. If you failed once (nothing to be ashamed about) but didn’t get or seek out help from your professor, t/a, peer to peer tutors, math labs, learning services etc etc then that’s on you. You will need that fortitude you get through your CS program. It only gets much harder from here.

Also no one “becomes” bad at math unless you have a learning math disability like dysclaculia. You most likely didn’t have a solid foundation in math as much as you might of thought. College Calc even the beginning classes are much harder and tend to go deeper then high school. So you will learn new material in college no question.

I wish you good luck but math is the foundation for a lot of what you do. Get help early next year with any class that your not doing well. Office hours are there for a reason. This is hard stuff.

If we aren’t supporting women in STEM, we’re discouraging them. At the college where I work, a student with straight A’s in computer science would get help developing a strategy to pass calc. They wouldn’t be told to choose a different major.

To the OP, whatever you do, don’t take any of the Calc classes at the university for Pass/No-Pass. On one of the UC-Berkeley forums on another site, on a very recent post it seems as if a student innocently enough took a Calc 2 class for P/NP and is now ready to declare for CS, but rendered him/herself ineligible to declare because of the P/NP.

tips for doing well: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1920853-college-is-a-step-up-from-hs-16-tips-on-doing-well-in-college.html